Tuesday, June 10, 2014

6/9/14 - "MORE THAN CONQUERORS"


Rom. 8:37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

I often ask people if is there anything else that God needs to do on His part to provide salvation for anyone? Most know and of course respond that no there is nothing else He needs to do. But for some reason we don’t seem to equate that with other areas of our life that are included in the saving work of Calvary. When most think about salvation they are only thinking of the price paid for us to go to heaven. But salvation is far more than just a ticket to heaven. Our salvation also includes the ability to walk in surpassing victory here on earth over all the work of the devil.

If our God has already provided all that is needed for us to have eternal life then is not that eternal life already ours? Certainly it is because there is nothing more God needs to do for us to obtain eternal life. Would it not be silly then to think that we have to fight the devil for instance to obtain this eternal life that is already secured for us? There are some who think they must do so, but most believers know that we do not have to fight the devil to obtain eternal life. It was already secured for us by our faith in Jesus Christ.

As our foundation verse reveals we are not going to one day become more than conquerors, we already are. For example we are not one day going to become children of God, if we have received Jesus as the Lord of our life we already are. As Paul states earlier in this chapter if we are children of God then we are heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. I wanted to address this in my study with you this week because I come across believers all the time who are always talking about fighting against something. They are either fighting the devil, fighting some disease or sickness, or more unfortunately fighting with one another. If we are more than conquerors what are we fighting against?

Rom. 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

If God did not spare His Son for us but in fact offered up His Son to pay the price for our sin, then how will He not also with the sacrifice His Son made for us also freely give us all things? Would healing not be included in that? Would deliverance not be included in that? If He is going to freely give us these things what are we fighting against? I have taught on this before but people need to fully understand how to walk in faith, for many read in the writings of Paul to Timothy about fighting the good fight of faith and then immediately think we have to fight against sickness, disease, demons, etc., but if we do that would mean we are not yet more than conquerors. But we are according to the Word of God.

You see in fighting the good fight of faith we are not fighting against what Jesus has already given us victory over. That is exactly what satan wants us to do. He wants us to live with this mentality that we must fight against the things he brings against us. When we do we are not fighting the good fight of faith. As simple as this may sound it will make all the difference between victory or defeat in our lives. For example if in the natural someone took on an enemy of yours and defeated them why then would you want to fight them? But that is exactly what Jesus has done. He defeated our enemy and is not one day going to make us more than conquerors, He already has.

Col. 2:15 [God] disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it [the cross].

Our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ has already disarmed the powers of darkness that were arrayed against us. This is not something He will one day do. God triumphed over them in and through Jesus Christ on the cross. If He has done so why are we trying to fight against the one whom God has already defeated? It is often because we don’t understand the fight of faith. Realize that in God defeating the powers of darkness that came against us He has also secured our victory in all that has come as a result of these works of darkness.

In Acts 10:38 we see for example how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power who went about doing good and healing those who were oppressed of the devil. You see God calls sickness and disease an oppression of the devil. So everything attributed to the devil as a result of the fall God in Christ has overcome. He did not do this for Himself; He did so for you and me. So what we need to realize is that we are not one day going to become more than conquerors, we are not one day in the eyes of God going to become over comers, in the eyes of God we already are. We must begin to see ourselves as to who we already are. To do this we must understand several key things.

Eph. 6:16 In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan.

The first key thing to understand is the fight of faith. Yes we are to fight the good fight of faith, but we need to know what we are fighting against. Here in the book of Ephesians we find what our fight of faith is all about. We are not to be fighting against the devil, nor are we to make statements that we are fighting against some type of disease or attack on our life, but in fact what we must fight against is the thoughts that come to our minds trying to convince us that we are not more than conquerors.

This is primarily a work of the devil with his fiery darts, which are thoughts coming to our minds, trying to convince us we are not victorious. He will do this by trying to deceive you through these thoughts that you are either not an over comer or he will try to get you to fight against the physical attack itself. But the fight is not against the physical manifestation in the natural realm, nor is it against the devil himself, but against the thoughts that come which work to get you to believe you are anything other than what God says you are. He does this by getting you focused on the physical and not who you truly are as a spirit being.

The fight of faith is where we learn to take God’s Word at face value no matter what our circumstances say. We instead choose to side in with the Word. If the Word says I am healed then I believe the Word above what my body and what my thoughts are trying to tell me. This is why our faith is not based on what we see in the natural, but on the Word of God. We are to walk by faith in the Word, not by sight. This is what fighting the fight of faith is all about. Natural circumstances and those fiery darts will try to convince you to believe them instead of what God’s Word says. The Word of God is true whether we choose to believe it or not, but when we choose to believe the Word, faith goes to work and faith always works.

This leads us to another very important key. We must develop our spirit man so that we will be dominated and led by our spirit instead of our soul, or our bodies. When we are governed by our soul, or by our bodies we will be what scripture reveals is a carnal Christian. This is someone who is governed by their carnal flesh. When we are governed by our carnal flesh we are going to believe our natural circumstances instead of the Word of God. But when we develop our spirit man, which is where faith comes from, then we will walk by faith and not by sight. We will begin to live out who we truly are, more than conquerors.

This is where we as believers are truly lacking in our life, in developing our spirit man. The average human spends far more time developing their bodies or their soul, mind will and emotions, instead of developing their spirit. To develop your spirit man you must learn to feed your spirit man. You must also learn to get rid of things that are not good for your spiritual development. If an athlete wants to develop their bodies they know they must not only eat the right foods, but they must also get rid of the foods that are not good for them. They change their diet to accomplish their goals. They also must become disciplined in exercise as well.

So it is with our spiritual development. We are told in Proverbs 4:23 we are to guard our hearts with all diligence. Another way to say that is you must work hard at protecting your heart. This pertains to what we see and hear. If you want to walk in what Christ has already done for you, then you must change your diet. You must change what you are feeding your spirit man. Doing so will help you begin to see what you already have and who you already are. This renewal of the mind to seeing who we now are in Christ is vital to our victory in every area of life.

Praise God we are not one day going to become more than conquerors, we already are. It is something we have now through the completed work of Christ. We must learn what the fight of faith is all about so that we can begin to see who we already have been made in Christ Jesus. In doing so we will walk in the overcoming victory that Christ has already given to us.

See You Again Next Week For More “Weekly Wisdom”

May God’s Best Be Yours!

Pastor Darryl Baker